Monday, August 11th
This 1988 baseball movie is directed by Ron Shelton and stars Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins. (After I graduated from UCLA Theater department, I worked with Tim Robbins’ theater company, The Actors’ Gang, in the mid-90s for a few years. I guess this is my opportunity to name-drop that I have briefly met Tim Robbins and even got to go to a screening of Dead Man Walking with TR and SS when they screened it for TAG.) So this movie reminds me of the time when I was actively participating in Equity waiver theater in Los Angeles. It's a nice little movie, and the reason Tim met Susan and started an over 20-year relationship. That is why I always have a little bit of a problem that Kevin ends up with her.
Tuesday, August 12th
I had my monthly meeting with my nutritionist, who told me that the rash on the back of my thigh was due to food allergies. She asked me what I ate and told me exactly what I should cut out of my diet. I had known about gluten for a long time, but I had not been strict about it. That was about to change. I should not be eating gravy with flour in it or breaded foods. The other major thing was nightshades. This included tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant.
The Head Nurse of my floor had stopped by my neighbor's bed, so she was right next to me when I got off the phone. I started enumerating all the foods I should not eat while she made notes on everything I said. An hour later, the hospital dietitian came to me and I repeated all my restrictions. I apologized for being difficult, and she told me the really difficult residents were the vegetarians. (That bummed me out a bit because I am not a fan of factory farming. If I could quit meat, I would.)
My masseuse came, but I was really starting to feel sick. It's just a cold, but I could hear the congestion in my chest, and I definitely felt warm. She did a little work on my feet, but thought she should stop before she distributed my illness throughout my body. I told her to text Mom and let her know. Bummer.
Wednesday, August 13th
The doctor changed my catheter and got a little too overeager when he was pushing the new catheter into me. I shouted enough to stop him as he was leaving and told him there was intense pressure. I asked him to pull the catheter out of me a little bit. He reached over and adjusted it, and the pressure backed off a little but did not go away completely. I told him it was a little bit better, and he walked away.
Wrong answer! I could tell there was still something very wrong, but the people at my hospital said the doctor was the only one who could put in the catheter. I just needed it backed out of me a little bit. I figure I must have a small bladder, and he grossly overestimated the force needed to push it inside me today. They said I would need to go to the emergency room in case they needed to remove it and put in a new catheter. I immediately started crying at the prospect of wasting a day in the ER.
The hospital called for a transport to the ER, which they were told would be an hour away. In the meantime, I had my first breakfast of my new diet. I am jokingly calling this my prison diet, but I like that I am not eating any foods I shouldn't. Breakfast is brown rice, sausage, and fruit. They gave me brown rice that was very wet, so it had the texture of oatmeal, and I really enjoyed it. A completely adequate meal.
My CNA was about to whisk me off to my shower when they stopped her so I could be ready when the ambulance showed up. (Strong explicative!) I only get two showers a week, so I really hate missing one for no good reason. I remembered I had a friend who was bringing me lunch, so I asked the nurse to text him not to come. The ambulance actually showed up about 20 or 30 minutes later. I took a final big drink from my camelback, which I wished I could have brought with me, and was transferred onto their gurney.
Two very nice private ambulance technicians decided to take me to Kuakine hospital because it would probably not be as busy or crowded. Fine by me! We got there, and I was put in an empty room. I was on the right side, and the left side had yet to be occupied. That situation was remedied almost immediately with an older woman.
I am already getting tired at the thought of me scrupulously detailing every little thing that happened to me that day. I've already written five paragraphs for today, and I just got into the room! Suffice it to say that I spent a day sitting on a hard (for me) gurney, not drinking much, not eating lunch, and the doctor eventually pulling the catheter a little bit farther out of me. Urine immediately started flowing out of it, and the doctor agreed that I knew my own body best.
By that time, it was something like 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and they said it would be a while till someone could transport me back to the hospital. Great, I thought, and asked for any kind of food that did not have bread. Amazingly, not too long after that, two guys in street clothes showed up with a gurney just after the nurse brought me some orange Jell-O. They had a ramp van and worked with hospitals or whoever needed transportation for medical purposes. I asked them what their rates were so I could maybe hire them privately sometime. I will call and find out since they didn't have their card on them.
When I finally got back to the hospital and into my bed, it was 5:30 PM or so. I'm sure you will not be surprised to read that I ate every morsel of my dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the meat wasn't as dry as I thought it might be without the gravy. It did not take me long at all to fall asleep.
Thursday, August 14th
Today was a suppository morning, so I know you will want all of the details–– ha! The significant thing that happened was that halfway through drinking the liter of water I usually do, I started to feel nauseous and had to stop. The nauseous feeling continued and I couldn't eat breakfast. I managed a scoop of brown rice at lunch. Mom stopped by as she and my sister were going to Maui for the weekend. She didn't stay long as she had to get to the airport soon.
They ordered some anti-nausea medication, but it did not come until 4 PM. I had been able to start drinking water, but eating food was another matter entirely. I tried to eat some dinner, but it wasn't until about 7 PM that I really got hungry. I had saved some brown rice and my helper suggested an Ensure. If that's all there was then bring it on! I ended up drinking two of them.
You know those days when I said that I didn't do anything? Compared to today, I had been writing a novel those other days. Today, I did nothing but lay in bed and alternately stared at my wall or dozed.
Friday, August 15th
Just to round out my adventures this week, my cold, which had reared it's head on Tuesday, came back with a vengeance today. I was warm and I felt the congestion in my chest. A was supposed to do hand exercises with me, but she texted me she couldn't come. J was going to come for lunch toda,y but it turned out he had to take his car into the dealer. Everyone's deserting me!, I thought and chuckled. That's just the way life ends up sometimes. My stepbrother would be able to stop by with shrimp pad thai tomorrow! Of course, because I wasn't feeling well, he would just drop it off and leave.
Saturday, August 16th
Enjoyed watching movies all day and not doing much. My stepbrother stopped by with pad thai. His wife was waiting downstairs in the car, so he just dropped it off and left. I am so grateful that my friends and relatives take such good care of me! I feel like a little bit of a heel–– just leave the food and go! It really does help, especially with Mom and my sister out of town.
Sunday, August 17th
I started writing the blog during the day, so early for me, but it was a week I really wanted to describe in detail, so I only got through Thursday by the end of the day. Even then, it took me until Tuesday morning to finish the entire week.
Luckily, I had been smart enough to preserve a moment of the week on film. This is me and my evening transporters, wheeling me back up to the fifth floor. The last shot is them with me and their van. Have a fabulous week!
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